Notes on a scandal
How a racy rumor about the father of behaviorism made its way into 200 psychology textbooks.

BY JAMIE CHAMBERLIN

Monitor staff

In January 1920, not long after John B. Watson published hisemotion-conditioning research on LittleAlbert, Johns Hopkins University gavethe superstar professor a 50 percentsalary hike to ensure he stayed at theuniversity. But by the end of that year,Benjamin, PhD, a professor emeritus atTexas A&M University.

That other woman was RosalieRayner, the 21-year-old graduatestudent who assisted Watson withhis controversial Little Albert work.

Where did the story start? Recordsindicate it originated with psychologistthe father of behaviorism and formera notable figure in national politics andJames Vernon McConnell (1925–90),APA president was fighting to keep hisbecame secretary of the interior in 1932

best known for his non-replicablejob there.

for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.research on memory transfer in“Watson was at the height of his fame, andbehaviorism, the brand of psychology thatplanarians.

“Why would a mere divorce,”McConnell wrote in a 1979 journalarticle, “cause a man of Watson’s statureto be fired?”

he promoted, was beginning to dominatePass it onpsychology. [Psychology] almost certainlyEven as a graduate student at theUniversity of Texas in the 1940s,

developed differently without his dynamicMcConnell was convinced there wasmore to Watson’s firing. In the late

him Watson was fired not only for the
divorce, but because he and Rayner
were measuring their physiological
responses during sex in Watson’s lab at
Johns Hopkins.

McConnell — who later claimedthat he had heard the same story frompublication of excerpts of love letters tothe ‘other woman,’” according to a 2007

American Psychologist article on Watson’sdeparture from Johns Hopkins. It waswritten by psychology historian LudyUnable to find another job inacademe, Watson moved to New YorkCity to work at the advertising firm J.

Walter Thompson and never returned toacademia.

one of his professors — included the
information in the first edition of
his 1974 textbook, “Understanding
Human Behavior: An Introduction
to Psychology.” McConnell wrote that